JP5084543B2 - Image processing apparatus and image processing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that forms and outputs scan data and page description data.

  A technique for converting a bitmap image input by an image input device into drawing data independent of the resolution of the image input device has been developed (for example, Patent Document 1). Processing for converting a bitmap image into data independent of resolution in this way is called vectorization or vectorization, and data obtained as a result of vectorization is called vector data. If these techniques are used, an input image can be converted into vector data independent of resolution, and can be reused in an arbitrary size without degrading the image.

  In addition, a technique has been developed in which PDL (Page Description Language: page description language) data is distributed to a plurality of drawing processing units to perform drawing processing in parallel (for example, Patent Document 2).

  Further, a technology for switching the CPU and frequency used between PDL data and raster data has been developed (for example, Patent Document 3).

  Here, since the vector data generated from the scan image is originally image data, it is simple drawing data compared to the vector data generated from the PDL data, but has a feature that it is very redundant.

JP 2006-23942 A JP-A-11-170657 JP 2007-108861 A

  However, when the vector data generated from the scan image is printed out, the drawing expansion processing similar to PDL is performed regardless of what the original data is, so that the drawing expansion of the vector data generated from the scan image is performed. There was a problem of poor processing efficiency.

  In addition, in order to distribute PDL to a plurality of drawing processing units, it is necessary to perform analysis again after scanning the page data to divide the PDL data, which requires extra time for division. was there.

  Further, in order to display vector data on a PC, it is necessary to convert it into a general format such as PDF (Portable Document Format). However, when the source is PDL data, there is a problem that the general-purpose format after conversion becomes very redundant due to a difference in drawing models.

  Furthermore, when searching for stored vector data, there is a problem that when data generated from PDL data is mixed, the search using a character string does not take place as intended.

  The technique of Patent Document 3 does not provide any solution for such various functions other than PDL data analysis / rendering.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to speed up the printing output of a scanned image. Another object of the present invention is to improve the efficiency of conversion of PDL data into a general-purpose format. Furthermore, an object of the present invention is to improve the convenience of document retrieval.

In order to solve the above problems, an image processing apparatus of the present invention includes an input unit that inputs a bitmap image obtained by a scanner, and a vector from at least a partial area of the bitmap image input by the input unit. Vector data generating means for generating data and metadata as additional information for search by performing at least one of character recognition processing or image information extraction processing on the bitmap image input by the input means Metadata generating means for generating, a first document generating means for generating a document storing the vector data generated by the vector data generating means and the metadata generated by the metadata generating means in association with each other; Receiving means for receiving PDL data from an external device, and PDL data received by the receiving means PDL analysis means for generating vector data and metadata by analyzing data, and second document generation means for generating a document storing the vector data and metadata generated by the PDL analysis means in association with each other And data type storage means for storing in the metadata information indicating whether the type of data used to generate the document is a bitmap image or PDL data, and is stored in the metadata of the document. Switching means for switching processing to be executed on the document according to information on the type of data being stored, and when executing processing for rendering vector data stored in the document into a bitmap, The switching means indicates that the type of data stored in the metadata is If bitmap is an image divides the vector data stored in the document portion units in the page, and switches to perform the rendering process of vector data the division by different processors .

  According to the present invention, high-speed printing can be performed by switching processing depending on the original data type of the generated vector data.

  Similarly, the efficiency of conversion of vector data to a general-purpose format can be improved by switching processing depending on the original data type.

  Furthermore, the convenience of document search can be improved by switching the process according to the original data type.

[Example 1]
The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<Configuration of image processing apparatus>
A configuration of a 1D color MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) suitable for applying this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The 1D color MFP includes a scanner, a laser exposure unit, a photosensitive drum, an image forming unit, a fixing unit, a paper feeding / conveying unit, and a printer control unit (not shown) that controls these units.

  The scanner illuminates a document placed on a document table, optically reads a document image, converts the image into an electrical signal, and creates image data.

  The laser exposure unit causes a light beam such as a laser beam modulated according to image data to enter a rotating polygon mirror (polygon mirror) that rotates at an equal angular velocity, and irradiates the photosensitive drum as reflected scanning light.

  The image forming unit rotates the photosensitive drum, charges it with a charger, develops the latent image formed on the photosensitive drum by the laser exposure unit with toner, and transfers the toner image to a sheet. At this time, an image is formed by executing a series of electrophotographic processes in which minute toner remaining on the photosensitive drum without being transferred is collected. At that time, each developing unit (developing station) having magenta (M), cyan (C), yellow (Y), and black (K) toners is wound around a predetermined position of the transfer belt and rotated four times. ), And the above-described electrophotographic process is sequentially repeated. After four rotations, the sheet onto which the four color full-color toner images have been transferred leaves the transfer drum and is conveyed to the fixing unit.

  The fixing unit is configured by a combination of a roller and a belt, and incorporates a heat source such as a halogen heater, and melts and fixes the toner on the sheet onto which the toner image has been transferred by the image forming unit by heat and pressure.

  The paper feeding / conveying unit has one or more sheet storages represented by sheet cassettes and paper decks, and one sheet is selected from a plurality of sheets stored in the sheet storages according to instructions from the printer control unit. Separated and transported to image forming / fixing unit. The sheet is wound around the transfer drum of the image forming unit, and after four rotations, is conveyed to the fixing unit. During the four rotations, the above-described toner images of each color of YMCK are transferred to the sheet. Further, when forming an image on both sides of the sheet, control is performed so that the sheet that has passed through the fixing unit passes through a conveyance path for conveying the sheet to the image forming unit again.

  The printer control unit communicates with the MFP control unit that controls the entire MFP, executes control in accordance with the instruction, and also checks the status of each of the scanner, laser exposure, image forming, fixing, and paper feed / carrying units. While managing, give instructions to keep the whole in harmony and operate smoothly.

<Configuration of controller unit>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a control unit (controller) of the MFP according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, a control unit 200 is connected to a scanner 201 that is an image input device and a printer engine 202 that is an image output device, and performs control for reading image data and printing output. Further, the control unit 200 is connected to the LAN 10 or the public line 204 to perform control for inputting / outputting image information and device information via the LAN 10.

  A CPU 205 is a central processing unit for controlling the entire MFP. A RAM 206 is a system work memory for the CPU 205 to operate, and is also an image memory for temporarily storing input image data. A ROM 207 is a boot ROM, and stores a system boot program. An HDD 208 is a hard disk drive and stores system software for various processes and input image data. The operation unit I / F 209 is an interface unit for the operation unit 210 having a display screen capable of displaying image data and the like, and outputs operation screen data to the operation unit 210. In addition, the operation unit I / F 209 serves to transmit information input by the operator from the operation unit 210 to the CPU 205. The network interface 211 is realized by a LAN card or the like, for example, and is connected to the LAN 10 to input / output information to / from an external device. Furthermore, the modem 212 is connected to the public line 204 and inputs / outputs information to / from an external device. The above units are arranged on the system bus 213.

  The image bus I / F 214 is an interface for connecting the system bus 213 and an image bus 215 that transfers image data at high speed, and is a bus bridge that converts a data structure. On the image bus 215, a raster image processor (RIP) 216, a device I / F 217, a scanner image processing unit 218, a printer image processing unit 219, an image editing image processing unit 220, and a color management module (CMM) 230 are connected. The

  A raster image processor (RIP) 216 expands a page description language (PDL) code and vector data described later into an image. A device I / F unit 217 connects the scanner 201 and the printer engine 202 to the control unit 200, and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data.

  The scanner image processing unit 218 performs various processes such as correction, processing, and editing on the scan image data input from the scanner 201. The printer image processing unit 219 performs processing such as correction and resolution conversion corresponding to the printer engine 202 on the image data to be printed out. The image editing image processing 220 performs various types of image processing such as image data rotation and image data compression / decompression processing. The color management module (CMM) 230 is a dedicated hardware module that performs color conversion processing (also referred to as color space conversion processing) on image data based on a profile and calibration data. A profile is information such as a function for converting color image data expressed in a device-dependent color space into a device-independent color space (eg, Lab). The calibration data is data for correcting the color reproduction characteristics of the scanner 201 and printer engine 202 in the MFP.

<Controller software configuration>
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of controller software for controlling the operation of the MFP.

  The printer interface 300 is a means for input / output with the outside. The protocol control unit 302 is means for performing communication with the outside by analyzing and transmitting a network protocol.

  A vector data generation unit (first conversion unit) 304 generates (vectorizes) vector data, which is a drawing description independent of resolution, from a bitmap image.

  A metadata generation unit (second conversion unit) 306 generates secondary information obtained in the vectorization process as metadata. The metadata is additional information data for search that is not necessary for the drawing process.

  The PDL analysis unit 308 is a unit that analyzes the PDL and converts it into an intermediate code (DisplayList, hereinafter referred to as “DL”) in a format that is easier to process. The intermediate code generated in the PDL analysis unit 308 is transferred to the data drawing unit 310 and processed. The data drawing unit 310 develops the intermediate code into bitmap data, and the developed bitmap data is sequentially drawn in the page memory 312.

  The page memory 312 is a volatile memory that temporarily holds bitmap data developed by the renderer.

  The panel input / output control unit controls input / output from the operation panel.

  The document storage unit 316 is a means for storing a data file including vector data, DL, and metadata in a unit (job) of an input document, and is realized by a secondary storage device such as a hard disk. Note that this data file is referred to as “document” in this embodiment.

  The scan control unit 318 performs various processes such as correction, processing, and editing on the image data input from the scanner.

  The print control unit 320 converts the contents of the page memory 312 into a video signal and transfers the image to the printer engine unit 322. The printer engine unit 322 is a printing mechanism unit for forming a received video signal on a recording sheet as a permanent visible image.

<Data processing of controller unit>
Next, how the vector data, DL, and metadata constituting the document are generated will be described.

  4, 5 and 6 show the data flow of the control unit 200 in this embodiment.

  FIG. 4 is a data flow during the copy operation.

  First, a paper document set in the document exposure unit is converted into bitmap data by a scanning process d1. Next, vector data independent of the resolution and associated metadata are generated from the bitmap data by vectorization processing d2 and metadata generation processing d4. A specific method for generating vector data and metadata will be described later.

  Next, a document in which vector data and metadata are associated is generated by document generation processing d3. Next, DL is generated from the vector data in the document by the DL generation process d5, and the generated DL is stored in the document and sent to the rendering process d7 to be developed into a bitmap.

  The developed bitmap is recorded on a paper medium by the printing process d8 to become a printed matter. If the printed matter that has been output is also set in the document exposure unit, processing from the scan d1 processing can be performed.

  FIG. 5 shows a specific data flow of the metadata generation process d4 shown in FIG. First, region division is performed from a bitmap in region division processing d1.

  The area division is a process of analyzing input bitmap image data, dividing the object into blocks for each object included in the image, and determining and classifying the attributes of each area. Attributes include types such as text (TEXT), image (PHOTO), line (LINE), figure (PICTURE), and table (TABLE).

  Here, FIG. 7 shows an example of a case where region division is performed on the input image. A determination result 72 is a result of performing region division on the input image 71. In the determination result 72, a portion surrounded by a dotted line represents one unit of the object as a result of analyzing the image, and the kind of attribute assigned to each object is the determination result of region division.

  Among the areas classified for each attribute, the character attribute area is subjected to character recognition processing by OCR processing d2 and converted into a character string. That is, this character string is a character string printed on paper. On the other hand, the image attribute area among the areas classified for each attribute is converted into image information through the image information extraction process d3. Image information is a character string representing the characteristics of an image, for example, a character string such as “flower” or “face”. For the extraction of image information, general image processing techniques such as detection of image feature amounts (such as the frequency and density of pixels constituting an image) and face recognition can be used.

  The generated character string and image information are adjusted to a data format to be described later by the format conversion process d4, and metadata is generated.

  FIG. 6 is a data flow during PDL printing. PDL printing is a printer operation that receives and outputs PDL data generated by a printer driver on a PC when printing is instructed from application software on a PC (Personal Computer).

  First, the received PDL data is analyzed by the PDL data analysis process d1, and vector data is generated.

  Next, a DL is generated from the vector data by the DL generation process d2, and the generated DL is stored in the document and sent to the rendering process d3 to be developed into a bitmap. The developed bitmap is recorded on a paper medium by the printing process d4 to become a printed matter. Vector data and DL generated in this process are stored in the document by the document generation process d6.

  Furthermore, from the bitmap generated by the rendering process d3, a character string and image information are generated as metadata by the metadata generation process d5 as in the copy operation, and stored in the document.

  There are various types of PDL such as LIPS (LBP Image Processing System) and PS (PostScript), but some PDLs have character string information. In this case, metadata is generated from the character string during PDL analysis and stored in the document.

  Next, document generation processing and printing processing will be described with reference to flowcharts.

  FIG. 8 shows the document generation process. This processing is processing for receiving bitmap data and generating a document composed of vector data, DL, and metadata.

  First, in step S801, the region division process described above is performed. Next, the area type (area attribute) is classified into TEXT, GRAPHIC, and IMAGE in step S802, and a separate process is performed for each. Although FIG. 7 shows an example in which the region attributes are classified into TEXT, PHOTO, LINE, PICTURE, and TABLE, the region attributes in FIG. 7 are classified into PHOTO, PICURE as IMAGE, and LINE and TABLE as GRAPHIC.

  If the area attribute is TEXT, the process proceeds to step S803 to perform OCR processing, and then a character string is extracted in step S804. Thereafter, in step S805, the character string is converted into metadata, and the process proceeds to step S806, where the recognized character outline is converted into vector data (vectorized).

  Here is a little more explanation.

  The metadata generated from the character string is an enumeration of character codes, and the enumeration of character codes is information necessary for keyword search.

  However, even though the character code can be recognized in the OCR process, it cannot recognize the typefaces such as “Mincho” and “Gothic”, the character size such as “10 pt” and “12 pt”, and the character modification such as “italic” and “bold”. Therefore, it is necessary to hold a character outline as vector data instead of using a character code for drawing.

  On the other hand, if the region attribute is IMAGE in step S802, the process proceeds to step S807 to perform image information extraction processing.

  In step S807, as described above, image features are detected using general image processing techniques such as image feature detection and face recognition. In step S808, the detected feature of the image is converted into a character string. This conversion is easy if a table of feature parameters and character strings is retained.

  Thereafter, in step S809, the character string is converted into metadata.

  The IMAGE area attribute is not vectorized, and the image data is held in the vector data as it is.

  If the region attribute is GRAPHIC in step S802, the process proceeds to step S810 to perform vectorization processing.

  In step S811, the metadata or vector data is converted into a document format.

  FIG. 9 shows document generation / print processing from PDL. This process is a process of receiving a PDL data, generating a document, and printing it out.

  First, in step S901, the PDL data is analyzed. If metadata such as character string information is included in the PDL during the analysis, the process proceeds to step S909 to add the PDL information to the metadata.

  On the other hand, in step S902, data other than metadata such as character string information is converted into vector data in step S903, and then in step S904, a document is generated.

  In step S905, a DL is generated. In step S906, the generated DL is added to the document.

  The document is generated according to the flow so far, but when the rendering process in step S907 and the printing process on the paper medium in step S908 are performed, all the processes are completed.

<Document data structure>
Next, the document structure will be described.

  FIG. 11 shows the data structure of the document.

  A document is data composed of a plurality of pages, and is roughly composed of vector data (a), metadata (b), and DL (c), and has a hierarchical structure starting from a document header (x1). The vector data (a) further includes a page header (x2), summary information (x3), and an object (x4), and the metadata (b) further includes page information (x5) and detailed information (x6). Has been. DL (c) further includes a page header (x7) and a drawing development instruction (x8). Since the document header (x1) describes the storage location of the vector data and the storage location of the DL, the vector data and the DL are associated by the document header (x1).

  Since the vector data (a) is resolution-independent drawing data (resolution-independent data), the page header (x2) describes layout information such as the size and orientation of the page. Drawing data such as lines, polygons, and Bezier curves are linked to the object (x4) one by one, and a plurality of objects are collectively associated with the summary information (x3). The summary information (x3) expresses the characteristics of a plurality of objects together, and describes the attribute information of the divided areas described with reference to FIG.

  The metadata (b) is additional information for search not related to the drawing process. The page information (x5) area includes page information such as whether the metadata is generated from bitmap data or PDL data, and the detailed information (x6) includes OCR information and A character string (character code string) generated as image information is described.

  Further, the metadata is referred to from the summary information (x3) of the vector data (a), and the detailed information (x6) can be found from the summary information (x3).

  DL (c) is an intermediate code for the renderer to develop a bitmap. In the page header (x7), a management table of drawing information (instructions) in the page is described, and the instruction (x8) is composed of resolution-dependent drawing information.

<Save input data type>
Next, the input data type saving process will be described.

  The flowchart of FIG. 10 shows the storage process of the input data type.

  This processing is performed when each document described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 6 is generated.

  First, the metadata of the document generated in step S1001 is acquired. In step S1002, it is determined whether the document is generated from a bitmap image. If it is immediately after the data flow shown in FIG. 5, it is generated from the hit map image.

  If it is determined in step S1002 that the image is generated from the bitmap image, the process proceeds to step S1003, and the input data type = “full image” is set in the page information of the metadata acquired in step S1001. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1002 that the data is generated from PDL, the process proceeds to step S1004 to set the input data type to “PDL”. Even if “PDL” is already set as the input data type in step S1003, it is overwritten with “full-screen image”. Therefore, the image generated by rendering the PDL is rewritten into a “full image” through this process.

  Here, details of the input data type will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 12 shows the data structure of the metadata shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 12, mp1 and mp2 indicate the metadata of the first page and the second page, respectively. The mp1 includes a page ID md1, an input data type md2, and detailed meta information a2 obtained by analyzing the inside of the page. mp2 has the same configuration, and all pages have the same configuration. As described above, only one input data type is metadata stored in each page.

<Switching processing according to input data type>
Next, the features of the scanned image and the PDL will be described with reference to FIGS. 13, 14, and 15. FIG. FIG. 13 is an example of the printed data used for the description here.

  A round figure o2 is superimposed on a black rectangle o1, and a portion c1 where o1 and o2 overlap is an image in which the black background is visible.

  FIG. 14 shows an example when this image is input from a scanned image, and FIG. 15 shows an example when it is input from a PDL.

  An image input as an image from a scanned image is subjected to vectorization processing as described above. As described with reference to FIG. 5, first, in order to perform region division, the overlapping portion is divided into different regions as shown in FIG. , S1, s2, and s3. Relatively simple s1 and s3 are often converted to vector data composed of point sequences, and complicated s2 is often converted to a bitmap. However, since s1, s2, and s3 are divided into regions, drawing without overlapping is performed. An important feature is that it has been converted to data.

  On the other hand, the image input as PDL is expressed by two figures, a black rectangle p1 and a round figure p2, as shown in FIG. 15, and overlapping is performed by designating the round figure p2 with a transmittance of 50%. Realize. That is, the PDL data is not divided into regions and is a more advanced and abstract expression.

  Further, s1, s2, s3 divided into regions in FIG. 14 and p1, p2 in FIG. 15 are structured into a block of blocks like a1, a2 in FIG. 11 in the document data structure.

  FIG. 16 shows the document printing process. This process is a process for printing out the generated document.

  First, document data is received in step S1601, and metadata in the document data is acquired in step S1602. In step S1609, it is determined whether or not the input data type stored in the metadata is “entire image”. When the input data type is “entire image”, the page data is divided for each block, and a thread is assigned to each block (partial part in the page) in S1608, and then the process proceeds to step S1603. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1603 that the image is not “entire image”, that is, “PDL”, the process proceeds to step S1603 and the processing is continued.

  In step S1603, a DL is generated from the vector data in the document. Next, the DL generated in step S1604 is added to the document, and the DL is rendered into a bitmap in step S1605. Finally, when the printing process on the paper medium is performed in step S1606, the process ends.

  That is, if each thread is processed by a plurality of processors of the CPU 205, when the input data type is “full-screen image”, the processing can be parallelized, so that high-speed processing is possible.

[Example 2]
In the first embodiment, parallel processing is enabled by using the input data type. However, in this embodiment, the processing speed is increased by switching processing so as not to perform extra processing using the input data type.
First, an example of a process for optimizing vector data will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 17 shows an example of gradation drawing.

  In FIG. 17 (a), gradations are expressed by joining parallelograms of different colors little by little, and one parallelogram is represented by (x1, y1), (x2, y2), (x3, y3), ( x4, y4). In such data, as the gradation becomes smoother, the number of parallelograms increases and the point sequence data becomes enormous. In view of this, an optimization process is generally performed in which the degree of jointing of parallelograms and the rate of color change are checked and combined into a single figure as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 18 shows an example of staircase drawing.

  In FIG. 18A, rectangles having a constant height (usually 1 pixel) and different widths are joined to represent a stepped diamond shape, and each rectangle is represented by (x1, y1), (x2, y2). ), (X3, y3), and (x4, y4). Such data also has an enormous point sequence, but if the height is constant, it can be expressed by only the difference in the x direction from (x1, y1) to (x2, y2) as shown in FIG. it can.

  The optimization processing as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18 can greatly optimize the vector data, but the processing takes time.

  Here, in general, such a representation is performed only on the PDL output from the application.

  Therefore, the speed can be increased by using the input data type and omitting these optimization processes in the case of a scanned image.

  FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing the optimization process switching process.

  First, in step S1901, metadata in the document is acquired.

  In step S1901, the input data type stored in the acquired metadata is detected. If the input data type is “PDL”, the process advances to step S1903 to execute the optimization process described above. On the other hand, in step S1902. When the input data type is “entire image”, the optimization process is not performed and the process is terminated.

[Example 3]
In this embodiment, the convenience of document search is improved by using the input data type.

  First, the characteristics of the character string generated from the scanned image and the character string generated from the PDL will be described with reference to FIGS. 20, 21, and 22.

  FIG. 20 shows an example of the printed data used for the description here.

  The image shown in FIG. 20 is composed of true characters st2 and st3 and italicized characters st1 and st4.

  An example when this image is input from the PDL is shown in FIG.

  As for the character string input as PDL, the true part is input as a character code as shown in FIG. On the other hand, the italicized part is input as a download character (bitmap character) as shown in FIG. In general, whether a character with such modification is expressed by a modified bitmap character or by an italic processing command and a character code depends on an application for creating a document. Since the character part “PDL” inputted as the download character is not expressed by the character code, the character string cannot be recognized.

  On the other hand, when a scan image is input, all characters can be recognized as a character string because the page is uniformly subjected to OCR processing.

  FIG. 22 shows document data when the image of FIG. 20 is input as a PDL and a scanned image.

  FIG. 22A shows document data when inputted in PDL, and is divided into download characters “PDL” (t 1) and text characters “data has various” (t 2) and held. The metadata obtained here is only the character string obtained from the character code of t2. Therefore, only “data”, “has”, and “various” are held in the metadata mt, and the input data type of the page information mp is “PDL”.

  FIG. 22B shows document data when input from a scanned image. As described above, the character shape of the scanned image is converted into a vector point sequence (t1) by vectorization processing, and at the same time, the character sequence is extracted by OCR processing.

  Accordingly, “PDL”, “data”, “has”, and “various” are held in the metadata mt, and the input data type of the page information mp is “entire image (Image)”.

  As described above, the character string stored in the metadata is characterized in that the information generated from the PDL is missing information compared to the character string generated from the scanned image.

  Therefore, the search function that performs full text search of a document and picks up a document including an arbitrary character string may cause confusion for an operator. Even though the print output results are exactly the same (FIG. 20A), if a document is searched for with the character string “PDL”, it will hit FIG. 22B (input from the scanned image). This is because 22 (a) (input from PDL) is not hit.

  FIG. 23 is an example of a screen displayed on the display unit of the operation unit of the image processing apparatus when the operator instructs to search for the document stored in the box. In FIG. 23, u1 is a display unit for displaying a list of files in the box.

  u2 is a combining button. When the operator selects a plurality of files on the screen and presses the combining button of u2, the selected files are combined to generate one file.

  u3 is a search button. When the operator wants to search for a file, the user presses a search button and inputs an arbitrary character string (not shown) to search for a file in the box and display the list in u1.

  FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing search processing switching according to this embodiment.

  This process is a process of switching whether or not the generated document is to be searched.

  First, in step S2401, metadata in document data is acquired. In step S2401, it is determined whether the input data type stored in the metadata is “PDL”. If the input data type is “PDL”, the process ends. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2402 that it is not “PDL”, that is, “entire image”, the process proceeds to step S2403 to continue searching for metadata in the page.

  In other words, confusion of the operator can be prevented by limiting the search target to documents whose input data type is a scanned image.

[Example 4]
In this embodiment, the conversion process to the general format is made efficient by using the input data type.

  The structure of a document generated from a scanned image or PDL is convenient for printing and searching. However, when displaying (previewing) using an application from a client PC, it is necessary to convert to a general format such as PDF (Portable Document Format). However, it is not easy to convert a document generated from PDL into a general-purpose format.

  For example, a PDL such as LIPS (LBP Image Processing System) generally performs clipping (unmolding) processing using a logical operation called “ROP (Raster Operation)”. However, the general-purpose format PDF drawing model (drawing expression) does not have ROP. Therefore, it is necessary to replace the ROP process with another drawing expression such as a clip point sequence, and the drawing expression created by the replacement becomes very redundant.

  This will be specifically described with reference to FIG. FIG. 26A shows an example of the printed data used for the description, in which a die-cut image is drawn. FIG. 26B is an example of a PDL rendering expression for rendering FIG. First, draw an image with XOR, and then draw a black image for punching with AND. Finally, the same image as before is drawn by XOR to obtain the result of FIG. FIG. 26C is an example of a drawing expression in a general-purpose format for drawing FIG. A point sequence in the shape of a punch is set as a clip region, and an image is drawn to obtain the result of FIG.

  FIG. 25 is a flowchart showing switching of general-purpose format conversion processing (data conversion processing) according to this embodiment.

  This process is a process of switching execution / non-execution of the rendering process at the time of conversion from the generated document to the general-purpose format.

  First, in step S2501, metadata in document data is acquired. In step S2501, it is determined whether the input data type stored in the metadata is “PDL”. If the input data type is not “PDL”, the process directly proceeds to step S2505 to perform conversion processing to a general-purpose format.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2502 that it is “PDL”, the process advances to step S2503 to render the corresponding page (bitmap development). That is, the input data type (PDL) is changed to image data. Since the rendered PDL data becomes the entire image data like the scan image, the scan data process is performed in step S2504. The scan data processing is basically the same processing as the scan image described above. After that, the process proceeds to step S2505 to perform conversion to a general-purpose data format. This conversion is the same processing as when the processing proceeds directly from step S2502 to step S2505 (that is, when the input data type is a scanned image).

  In other words, in this embodiment, the PDL image is rendered once when it is converted to the general format, so that the same conversion processing as the scanned image can be performed, and the general format can be prevented from being converted into a redundant drawing expression. .

  Note that the conversion process to the general-purpose format performed in step S2505 only converts the vector data of the document into a rendering expression of the general-purpose format on a one-to-one basis, and thus description thereof is omitted.

[Other embodiments]
Although various embodiments have been described in detail above, the present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus constituted by one device. For example, a scanner, a printer, a PC, a copier, a multifunction machine, and a facsimile machine.

  The present invention supplies a software program that implements the functions of the above-described embodiments directly or remotely to a system or apparatus, and a computer included in the system reads and executes the supplied program code. Can also be achieved.

  Accordingly, since the functions and processes of the present invention are implemented by a computer, the program code itself installed in the computer also implements the present invention. That is, the computer program itself for realizing the functions and processes is also one aspect of the present invention.

  In this case, the program may be in any form as long as it has a program function, such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, or script data supplied to the OS.

  Examples of the computer-readable recording medium for supplying the program include a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, an MO, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, and a CD-RW. Computer-readable recording media include a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, a DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R), and the like.

  The program may be downloaded from an Internet / intranet website using a browser of a client computer. That is, the computer program itself of the present invention or a compressed file including an automatic installation function may be downloaded from the website onto a recording medium such as a hard disk. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different website. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer may be a constituent requirement of the present invention.

  Further, the program of the present invention may be encrypted and stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and distributed to users. In this case, only the user who has cleared the predetermined condition is allowed to download the key information to be decrypted from the website via the Internet / intranet, decrypt the program encrypted with the key information, and execute the program. You may install it on

  Further, the functions of the above-described embodiments may be realized by the computer executing the read program. Note that an OS or the like running on the computer may perform part or all of the actual processing based on the instructions of the program. Of course, also in this case, the functions of the above-described embodiments can be realized.

  Furthermore, the program read from the recording medium may be written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. Based on the instructions of the program, a CPU or the like provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit may perform part or all of the actual processing. In this way, the functions of the above-described embodiments may be realized.

  In the first embodiment, document data is assigned to a thread for each block. However, the document data is not limited to this as long as it is a unit of area division processing of a scanned image. For example, when the area division processing is not area division but layer division, it can be assigned for each layer.

  In the fourth embodiment, the rendering process is performed at the time of conversion to the general-purpose format. However, the rendering process may be performed in the background at the time of saving in the box. Thereby, the conversion time of a general-purpose format can be shortened.

  In the fourth embodiment, rendering processing is performed when converting to a general-purpose format. It is also conceivable to use attribute information obtained at the time of rendering processing (generally attribute bits such as characters, graphics, and images output at the time of rendering) for area division of scan image processing.

1 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a printing apparatus (MFP) according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the control unit of each apparatus in embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the controller software in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the data flow of the scan copy in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the data flow of the metadata production | generation in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the data flow of PDL printing in embodiment. It is a figure showing an example of the block selection of the vectorization process in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the data flow of the document production | generation from the image in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the difference between a scanned image and PDL data. It is a figure which shows the data produced | generated from a scanned image. It is a figure which shows the data produced | generated from PDL. It is a flowchart which shows the parallel processing in embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process of PDL in embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the input data classification setting process in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the storage structure of the document in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the storage structure of the metadata in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of vector data optimization. It is a figure which shows the example of vector data optimization. It is a figure which shows the judgment process of the optimization process in embodiment. It is an example of input data. It is a figure which shows the difference of the data by input data classification. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the document data in embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen displayed on the operation part in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the judgment process of the search process in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the judgment process of the general purpose format conversion in embodiment. It is a figure which shows the difference in the drawing expression of PDL and a general-purpose format.

Explanation of symbols

200 Control Unit 201 Scanner 202 Printer Engine 210 Operation Unit 301 Job Control Processing 1101 Protocol Control Unit 1102 Vector Data Generation Unit 1103 Metadata Generation Unit 1104 PDL Analysis Unit 1105 Data Rendering Unit 1106 Page Memory 1020 Panel Input / Output Control Unit 1030 Document Storage Unit 1300 Output control unit 1400 Printer engine unit 1500 Scan control unit

Claims (6)

An input means for inputting a bitmap image obtained by the scanner;
Vector data generating means for generating vector data from at least a partial area of the bitmap image input by the input means;
Metadata generation means for generating metadata as additional information for search by performing at least one of character recognition processing or image information extraction processing on the bitmap image input by the input means;
First document generation means for generating a document in which the vector data generated by the vector data generation means and the metadata generated by the metadata generation means are associated and stored;
Receiving means for receiving PDL data from an external device;
PDL analysis means for generating vector data and metadata by analyzing the PDL data received by the receiving means;
Second document generation means for generating a document storing the vector data and metadata generated by the PDL analysis means in association with each other;
Data type storage means for storing, in the metadata, information indicating whether the type of data used to generate the document is a bitmap image or PDL data;
Switching means for switching processing to be executed on the document in accordance with data type information stored in the document metadata ;
With
When executing the process of rendering the vector data stored in the document into a bitmap, the switching means, when the type of data stored in the metadata is a bitmap image, An image processing apparatus that divides stored vector data into partial units in a page and performs switching so that rendering processing of the divided vector data is executed by a different processor . An input means for inputting a bitmap image obtained by the scanner;
Vector data generating means for generating vector data from at least a partial area of the bitmap image input by the input means;
Metadata generation means for generating metadata as additional information for search by performing at least one of character recognition processing or image information extraction processing on the bitmap image input by the input means;
First document generation means for generating a document in which the vector data generated by the vector data generation means and the metadata generated by the metadata generation means are associated and stored;
Receiving means for receiving PDL data from an external device;
PDL analysis means for generating vector data and metadata by analyzing the PDL data received by the receiving means;
Second document generation means for generating a document storing the vector data and metadata generated by the PDL analysis means in association with each other;
Data type storage means for storing, in the metadata, information indicating whether the type of data used to generate the document is a bitmap image or PDL data;
Switching means for switching processing to be executed on the document in accordance with data type information stored in the document metadata;
Means for performing optimization processing for optimizing vector data stored in the document;
With
The switching means executes the optimization process when the type of data stored in the metadata is PDL data, and when the type of data stored in the metadata is a bitmap image, Switch to omit optimization process
  An image processing apparatus. An input means for inputting a bitmap image obtained by the scanner;
Vector data generating means for generating vector data from at least a partial area of the bitmap image input by the input means;
Metadata generation means for generating metadata as additional information for search by performing at least one of character recognition processing or image information extraction processing on the bitmap image input by the input means;
First document generation means for generating a document in which the vector data generated by the vector data generation means and the metadata generated by the metadata generation means are associated and stored;
Receiving means for receiving PDL data from an external device;
PDL analysis means for generating vector data and metadata by analyzing the PDL data received by the receiving means;
Second document generation means for generating a document storing the vector data and metadata generated by the PDL analysis means in association with each other;
Data type storage means for storing, in the metadata, information indicating whether the type of data used to generate the document is a bitmap image or PDL data;
Switching means for switching processing to be executed on the document in accordance with data type information stored in the document metadata;
Means for converting the document into a universal data format;
With
When the type of data stored in the metadata is PDL data, the switching unit draws and develops the bitmap image on the document before converting to the general-purpose data format, After executing the processing by the vector data generating means on the bitmap image, switching to execute the processing to convert to the general-purpose data format, while the type of data stored in the metadata is the bitmap image Is switched to execute the process of converting to the general-purpose data format based on the vector data included in the document.
An image processing apparatus. An input means for inputting a bitmap image obtained by the scanner;
Vector data generating means for generating vector data from at least a partial area of the bitmap image input by the input means;
Metadata generation means for generating metadata as additional information for search by performing at least one of character recognition processing or image information extraction processing on the bitmap image input by the input means;
First document generation means for generating a document in which the vector data generated by the vector data generation means and the metadata generated by the metadata generation means are associated and stored;
Receiving means for receiving PDL data from an external device;
PDL analysis means for generating vector data and metadata by analyzing the PDL data received by the receiving means;
Second document generation means for generating a document storing the vector data and metadata generated by the PDL analysis means in association with each other;
Data type storage means for storing, in the metadata, information indicating whether the type of data used to generate the document is a bitmap image or PDL data;
Switching means for switching processing to be executed on the document in accordance with data type information stored in the document metadata;
With
When executing a search process for searching for the additional information held as the metadata, the switching unit executes the search process for a document whose data type is a bitmap image, and the data By switching so that the search process is not executed for a document whose type is PDL, the search target of the search process is limited.
An image processing apparatus. An input step in which the input means inputs a bitmap image obtained by the scanner;
A vector data generating means for generating vector data from at least a partial region of the bitmap image input in the input step;
Meta data generating means generates meta data as additional information for search by performing at least one of character recognition processing and image information extraction processing on the bitmap image input in the input step. A data generation step;
A first document generation step, wherein a first document generation unit generates a document in which the vector data generated in the vector data generation step and the metadata generated in the metadata generation step are stored in association with each other;
A receiving step for receiving PDL data from an external device;
A PDL analysis step in which a PDL analysis unit generates vector data and metadata by analyzing the PDL data received in the reception step;
A second document generation step, wherein a second document generation unit generates a document storing the vector data and metadata generated in the PDL analysis step in association with each other;
A data type storing step in which data type storing means stores information indicating whether the type of data used to generate the document is a bitmap image or PDL data in the metadata;
A switching step in which the switching means switches processing to be executed on the document in accordance with data type information stored in the metadata of the document;
Means for converting the document to a general data format;
Including
If the type of data stored in the metadata is PDL data, the switching step draws and develops a bitmap image for the document before converting to the general-purpose data format. After executing the vector data generation step for the bitmap image, switching to execute the step of converting to the general-purpose data format, while the type of data stored in the metadata is a bitmap image Switch to execute the step of converting to the general-purpose data format based on the vector data contained in the document.
An image processing method. Computer
Input means for inputting a bitmap image obtained by the scanner;
Vector data generating means for generating vector data from at least a partial area of the bitmap image input by the input means,
Metadata generation means for generating metadata as additional information for search by performing at least one of character recognition processing or image information extraction processing on the bitmap image input by the input means,
First document generation means for generating a document in which the vector data generated by the vector data generation means and the metadata generated by the metadata generation means are associated and stored;
Receiving means for receiving PDL data from an external device;
PDL analysis means for generating vector data and metadata by analyzing the PDL data received by the receiving means;
Second document generation means for generating a document storing the vector data and metadata generated by the PDL analysis means in association with each other;
Data type storage means for storing, in the metadata, information indicating whether the type of data used to generate the document is a bitmap image or PDL data;
Switching means for switching processing to be executed on the document according to information on the type of data stored in the metadata of the document;
Means for converting the document into a universal data format;
An image processing apparatus comprising:
When the type of data stored in the metadata is PDL data, the switching unit draws and develops the bitmap image on the document before converting to the general-purpose data format, After executing the processing by the vector data generating means on the bitmap image, switching to execute the processing to convert to the general-purpose data format, while the type of data stored in the metadata is the bitmap image Is switched to execute the process of converting to the general-purpose data format based on the vector data included in the document.
A program for functioning as an image processing apparatus.

Images